The End of ( Traditional ) Emergence : Introducing Reactive Emergence
water molecule is formed . The resulting entity exists in what is sometimes called an energy well .
Other static entities include those joined together by the electromagnetic forces that make nails , screws , glue , and simple friction work as binding mechanisms . The resulting entities have less mass than their constituents considered separately .
3.2 General Evolution and the Less-mass Criterion for Emergence
Negative interactive energy and the compound materials it produces give
rise to what might be considered a more general form of evolution . In general , evolution compounds are created as combinations of existing entities . These creative activities occur both in the interior of stars and more both in the interior of stars and in more prosaically in environments like the earth . Some of those compounds have enough negative interactive energy to persist over extended periods .
The stable properties that Fodor marveled at result from this sort of evolutionary process . They are properties of compound objects held together by negative interaction energy . Because these objects persist over extended periods , they interact with each other as objects . Fodor ’ s “ to-ings and fro-ings of bits and pieces at the extreme micro-level ” become irrelevant . Negative interaction energy overcomes the to-ings and fro-ings and ensures that the larger entities retain their identities and properties .
This picture suggests an alternative criterion for some forms of emergence : any phenomenon that persists 12 because of negative interaction energy . Such phenomena will have less mass than the sum of the mass of their constituents considered separately . This approach eliminates the need to talk about properties and their independence as a way to establish emergence . Abbott ( 2010b ) called this static emergence .
Consider hemoglobin . A hemoglobin molecule consists of four iron atoms plus thousands of atoms of carbon , hydrogen , nitrogen , oxygen , and sulfur . Its physical and electrical structure is such that it binds oxygen molecules in the chemical environment of the lungs and releases them in the chemical environment of cells . Its oxygen binding and releasing behavior is a consequence of its structure and does not depend solely on — nor can it be either characterized in terms of — properties of its constituents , individually or aggregated . Important as these oxygen-delivery properties are , hemoglobin is emergent because it has less mass than the sum of the mass of its constituents .
12 I realize that persists does not provide a sharp criterion .
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